StrangeLight

thanks for the reply. i had considered applying to columbia but found that there were other schools that fit my thematic interests a little more strongly (african diaspora, labor history). spoke to one professor at another school who did her PhD at chicago. she studies the dominican republic primarily and told me that she found herself somewhat lonely at chicago, felt it wasn't the best uses of her resources. also, congrats to the admits to ucla! now i wish i had applied there, because i see that international students were offered full funding packages, but i had been scared away when i was told it that international students wouldn't get first year funding. i should've just submitted the app, it's only another $100. :roll: oh well.

congratulations on getting into chicago! i don't know how many students columbia usually admits, but a friend of mine applied there and received a lot of positive feedback from her potential adviser, and she hasn't heard anything yet, so i wouldn't worry too much. may i ask what your focus in latin american history is? i myself plan to study the spanish caribbean, and when i hear that others have applied to schools that are excellent but weren't even on my radar (such as columbia or chicago), i get a little panicky.

re: princeton being unfriendly in the application process, i found it to be the opposite. i contacted a prospective adviser for every school i applied to (9), and jeremy adelman from princeton was the first to reply. he and i wrote back and forth, and great length, over the course of about a month. he was very nice, challenged me to broaden my ideas, and even gave me tips on what to focus on when i wrote my personal statement. definitely seemed like the kind of prof i'd want as an adviser. tough but engaged. that said, i got rejected. but princeton's process was probably one of the most positive for me. i study latin american history, and the caribbean in particular, and adelman's the only prof there that really does latin america. judging by their list of current students, they take anywhere from 0-1 latin americanists a year, so the rejection wasn't surprising. i also got rejected from upenn a few days ago. also not surprising, considering they don't really "do" latin american history, despite having ann farnsworth-alvear there. not heartbreaking. i got accepted to the university of miami, probably the "worst" school i applied to, with full funding ($20,000/yr for 5 years), reduced TA requirements, and they're considering my application for a university-wide fellowship that, if i won, would give me another $10,000/yr for 5 years. they've emailed and called a few times, offered to defray the costs of visiting the school. all in all, a really positive acceptance, but it still makes me worry... they're courting me pretty heavily, but no one else is. but at least i'm going somewhere. the school has some solid faculty members and great resources for the sort of history i plan to do. still waiting on decisions from nyu, pittsburgh, cornell, michigan, and texas. i wasn't invited to nyu's prospective students weekend, but i applied and was accepted (with partial fellowship) to nyu's joint journalism/latin american studies dual masters program last year. i decided not to go because i've bailed on the journalism route, but if i can get into the latin american studies program with partial fellowship, surely i'm going to be seriously considered for a history phd? maybe? i met one potential adviser at a cocktail party at one of my professor's houses (he was drunk off his ass, which only makes me like him more), and another potential adviser is a "really good friend" of my current adviser, who seems to like me a lot, and yet i received nothing more than "apply and see what happens" when i tried to contact either of these people through email. pittsburgh, texas, and cornell were all really receptive to speaking with me, but in light of the princeton rejection after what i thought was a lot of engagement with my adviser, i don't feel good about any of those schools. michigan gave me the one liner of "i'd be happy to work with you should you be accepted," so i don't hold out much hope there.